Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/56

 40 BEACONSFIELD Minister), viz. (i) Feb. to Dec. 1868, and (2) Mar. 1874 to Apr. 1880; Lord Privy Seal, 1876-78. Trustee of the Nat. Portrait Gall, from 1856, and of the Brit. Museum from 1863 till his death; Elder Brother of the Trin. House 1866-81; LL.D. of Edinburgh 30 Oct. 1867; Lord Rector of the Univ. of Glasgow 1871-77; was cr. D.C.L. of Oxford, 7 June 1873; and LL.D. of Glasgow 1873; F.R.S. 10 Feb. 1876. On 21 Aug. 1876 he was cr. VISCOUNT HUGHENDEN OF HUGHEN- DEN, Bucks, and EARL OF BEACONSFIELD in the said co. In 1 878 (6 June to 16 July) he (with the Marquess of Salisbury) was Joint Pleni- potentiary to the Congress of the European Powers at Berlin. On 22 July 1878 he was invested at Osborne as K.G. Under the will, sworn under Carmanton, Cornwall), who J. on 11 Nov. 1863, being da. and h. of Mendez da Costa, a Portuguese, he had inherited her fortune. He m. Mary Anne, suo jure Viscountess Beaconsfield abovenamed. He d. s.p., 19 Apr. 1 88 1, at 19 Curzon Str., Mayfair, in his 77th year, and was bur. at Hughenden afsd., when the Peerage became extinct.(^) Will dat. 16 Dec. 1878, pr. 29 June 1881, wherein he devises his real estate to his (only) nephew Coningsby Ralph Disraeli {b. 25 Feb. 1867), only s. of his only surv. br. Ralph (formerly Raphael) Disraeli, Deputy Clerk of the Parliaments. Personalty ;^76,687. BEARHAVEN see BEREHAVEN BEAUCHAMP VISCOUNTCY. I. Sir Edward Seymour,('') br. to Jane, the then Queen J J ^ Consort, was cr. VISCOUNT BEAUCHAMP,('=) on ^^ 5 June 1536, and subsequently, 18 Oct. 1537 and 16 Feb. 1547, Earl of Hertford and Duke of Somer- ^^ ' set, £s?c. See "Somerset," Dukedom of, cr. 1547. All his honours were forfeited 1552, and none, except the Dukedom of Somerset, were ever restored. (*) " He had gained the affectionate regard of no small portion of the working classes . . . even his political opponents respected his courage, his penetrating judgments, his dignified firmness. . . . He lived to be an idol, and died to become a tradition, for almost half his countrymen; and the anniversary of his death came to be kept as a kind of Saint's Day by ardent Conservatives." (Low and Sanders' Political History of England^ 1837-1901). By a political opponent this brilliant statesman was said to be a first rate Courtier, a second rate novelist, and a third rate politician. V.G. C") He was descended from Sir Roger Seymour, and Cicely, ist sister and coh. of John (de Beauchamp), Lord Beauchamp of Somerset (who was of Hatch in that county), on whose death in 136 1 that Barony had fallen into abeyance. (■=) Only 1 1 Viscountcies had been conferred in England hitherto, this being the 1 2th. For a list of early Viscountcies see note iub Walter, Viscount Hereford [1550].
 * {^40,ooo, of Sarah Willyams, widow (relict of James Brydges Willyams, of